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Pilots start now, health secretary tells dentists
25th May 2011
Trials of new dental contracts – with payments according to quality of treatment, rather than quantity – will begin within weeks, the health secretary revealed.
Addressing the British Dental Conference, Andrew Lansley said the 62 pilots would 'go live in the next month', ahead of legislation later in this parliament.
And he hailed the help ministers had received from dentists, saying: 'It contrasts sharply with the atmosphere of hostility and anger that prevailed around the previous dental reform programme.'
During the speech, in Manchester, Mr Lansley also revealed that local authorities would help the new NHS Commissioning Board develop services that 'respond to locally identified needs'.
The shake-up of commissioning – part of the troubled Health and Social Care Bill – has been fiercely criticised by Labour, although the Health Secretary insisted it had been 'broadly welcomed". And he launched an attack on the quality of children's teeth, branding evidence that 30% of children suffer 'very significantly' from tooth decay 'unacceptable'.
And he added: 'Here in the north west, the extraction of teeth is the biggest single reason why children are subjected to a general anaesthetic.
'We need to focus our services more on prevention, for both adults and for children.'
In May, when the department of health announced that 62 dental practices had been selected to test out a new dental contract, it said they would get underway 'in the summer'.
Now they will begin within the next few weeks, with three slightly different different models providing information and evidence on various aspects of the proposals.
Mr Lansley pledged the shake-up would; guarantee 'continuity of care' for patients, end the 'perverse incentives of an activity based system' and properly measure the quality of treatment.
And he praised two dentists who had 'blazed a trail' in training colleagues who will run the contract pilots – Ravi Singh, of Windsor Dental Practice, in Salford, and Shazzad Saleem, of Glodwick Dental Practice, in Oldham.
On commissioning, Mr Lansley stuck by his plans for the new independent Commissioning Board to perform the task – despite hints of a rethink on other aspects of the Bill, as part of a 'listening exercise'.
He said some of the doomed primary care trusts (PCTs) had worked 'innovatively and constructively', but said the approach of others had been 'frustrating for everybody – especially for the profession'.
And he said: 'We have an opportunity to achieve greater integration between primary and secondary care dental services and to bring a far greater degree of consistency to dental commissioning.'
However, local councils would produce 'Joint Strategic Needs Assessments', which the Commissioning Board would develop further. There was also an apparent admission of tensions, when he said a meeting between Sir David Nicholson, the Board's chief executive-in-waiting, and North West dentists had been 'frank and constructive'.
Mr Lansley acknowledged that the introduction of registration with the CQC had caused 'a good deal of concern', but told the conference: 'We need to move on.'
He admitted the recent 0.5% increase in contract values had been 'tough', but added: 'We've protected the NHS budget – increasing it in real terms with an extra £11.6 billion in this parliament.'
Finally, commenting on a study suggesting 11 million people would live to the age of 100, Mr Lansley said: 'Almost all of those 11 million people will retain some teeth past their 100th birthday and will need support to maintain their oral health.'
Author
Rob Merrick
Parliamentary correspondent
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